Go to Arles in July, where you can see 200 exhibitions in a week. Failing that, go to each and every exhibition you can. Borrow art books from the library. Go to remainder shops where photography books are often on sale. Hell, read AP, especially my column at the back where I try for as wide a variety of pictures as I can find.

As for following one photographer... No, I don't do that. Never have. Why would I? There are plenty of photographers whose work I admire while having no desire to emulate it, and plenty more who, even though they take pictures of the same sort of things that I do, are very different. They should be different, too: I don't want to be second-rate Martin Parr or Sebastiao Salgado.

Inspiration comes from everywhere: take a look at my The Secret Life of Chairs, or Frances's Vehicles as Ruins. Do not ignore other media -- paintings, sculpture, architecture, poetry -- and above all do not ignore the world around you. Personally, I find that inspiration comes a lot better when I'm not looking for it, and just let it bubble up from the pictures I find mysef taking.

Yeah I know this but to be brutally honest and I hate to say it but I don't really have the eye but I really enjoy taking photos so I take ideas from others. Thanks for the links I will check them out. are there any really good street photographers you know of or do you do this yourselfs? I'd love a look at some pics before I head out and take a bash myself

are there any really good street photographers you know of or do you do this yourselfs? I'd love a look at some pics before I head out and take a bash myself

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It depends entirely on what you mean by "street photography". There is a small but vociferous band who claim to hold the holy word on the subject and a much bigger group who regard anything taken in a street as "street photography" (I belong to the second group).

Here are some random examples of what I think of as street photography...

Martin Parr is probably the king of street over last few decades. He specialises in going into boring places and situations and extracting something interesting. That way his work stands out. Interesting shot in interesting place tends not to stand out as much.

Yeah I know this but to be brutally honest and I hate to say it but I don't really have the eye but I really enjoy taking photos so I take ideas from others. Thanks for the links I will check them out. are there any really good street photographers you know of or do you do this yourselfs? I'd love a look at some pics before I head out and take a bash myself

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The eye and the inspiration come from taking pictures: vision feeds on itself. Shoot whatever interests you, whatever's visually attractive. Here's a bit about street. Here's some more about "fine art". Here are some thoughts on sepia... Let the world suggest what's worth shooting. Shoot it all. Sort it out later.

There are lots of websites that curate art/design/photography and you can sign up for an email update from them or simply bookmark them...bored panda, it's nice that, l'oeil de la photographie, design taxi, magnum photos, creative review, colossal, foam magazine, British Journal of Photography, Royal Society of Photography...there are loads of htem. More than anyone has time to look at. Go investigate, see which appeal and make regular visits to keep up to date with new stuff as well as checking out the older things.

In a club you can get a lot of inspiration from what other members to. There is a perception that it is all samey "club" subjects, but that's not really true.

In my Club days Field End was one of the best and each of the top 8 or 10 workers was in a different area. We had landcapes and people from Chris Palmer (now at Amersham) linked in another post, Denis (ex BAFTA winner) the best birds man in the club world and a very fine landscaper, Dr John doing anything abstract, or inventive with strange processing, Marilyn a superb landscaper, a seeing eye specialist who infuriated me because I couldn't do what he did, a guy working in mono who created great images out of the most unlikely things, a couple who seemed to be always travelling, Canyon Lands, Namibia, Cuba etc, two very good macro workers, one of whom made his own equipment, street photographers..........

Check out the galleries of clubs like Amersham (where I don't even see most of their FRPSs exhibiting) and see if that gives you and idea of the variety you'd see around you every week: http://www.amershamphotosoc.com/gallery/